How Does 'Communion: A True Story' Describe Extraterrestrial Beings?

Question

Just started reading Whitley Strieber's 'Communion' after hearing about the infamous cover. The aliens creep me out—are they meant to be the classic greys from abduction lore, or something else entirely?

EricHines · Answer

The book presents them through a first-person narrative focused on claimed encounters, detailing beings as small, hairless humanoids with large dark eyes and telepathic abilities. Their behavior is often described as unsettling but not overtly hostile. For a very different fictional take on close contact, 'Alien Mate' explores a consensual bond between a human and an extraterrestrial, building its story around interspecies communication and the practical, emotional challenges of such a relationship.

Jade · Answer

Strieber’s extraterrestrials are hauntingly intimate. They don’t invade; they infiltrate, appearing in bedrooms with the quiet inevitability of a dream. Their technology feels organic, blending biology and machinery seamlessly. The beings themselves are androgynous, devoid of obvious gender, which adds to their alienness. Their behavior is paradoxical—sometimes gentle, sometimes brutal—as if they’re following rules beyond human understanding. The book’s power lies in how it turns these creatures into mirrors, reflecting our deepest fears and wonders about the unknown.

Xylia · Answer

The aliens in 'Communion' are textbook greys but with a psychological twist. Their eyes aren’t just big—they’re hypnotic, like pools of liquid obsidian that seem to peer into your soul. Their skin isn’t merely gray; it’s almost translucent, shimmering faintly under dim light. What’s chilling is their silence. They don’t speak, yet their presence screams inside your mind. Strieber’s account makes them feel less like sci-fi monsters and more like enigmatic visitors from a realm we can’t comprehend. Their actions—whether probing or guiding—are ambiguous, making their true nature a haunting puzzle.

Isaac · Answer

In 'Communion: A True Story', the extraterrestrial beings are depicted with an unsettling blend of familiarity and otherness. They have large, almond-shaped black eyes that dominate their small, grayish faces, giving them an almost insect-like appearance. Their bodies are slender and frail, with disproportionately long fingers that seem both delicate and menacing. The author, Whitley Strieber, describes their movements as eerily fluid, as if gravity affects them differently.

Their interactions with humans are a mix of clinical detachment and cryptic curiosity. They communicate telepathically, projecting images and emotions rather than words. Some encounters suggest a cold, almost surgical interest in human anatomy, while others hint at a deeper, almost spiritual connection. The book paints them as neither wholly benevolent nor malevolent—they exist in a moral gray zone, leaving readers to grapple with their intentions.

Olivia · Answer

These aliens defy easy categorization. They’re small, barely four feet tall, but their presence looms large. Their heads are oversized, suggesting advanced intellect, yet their expressions are inscrutable. Strieber emphasizes their odor—a sterile, metallic scent that lingers like a warning. Their ships are silent, defying physics. The book’s brilliance is in its ambiguity: are they explorers, conquerors, or something else entirely? It’s a masterclass in making the familiar terrifying.

IvanLong · Answer

The genius of the book's approach is that it describes the beings through the lens of trauma. Details are fragmented, recalled under hypnosis, and saturated with fear. You get the sense of a small, wiry body with a large head, but specifics blur. The communication is a big part of the 'description'—it's telepathic, overwhelming, and often conveys complex information in an instant. The beings are portrayed as having a group consciousness, acting in unison with no need for verbal discussion. Their environment is sterile, bright, and cold. Ultimately, 'Communion' is less concerned with what the beings look like and more with what their existence means. The description serves to pose terrifying questions about human autonomy, the reliability of memory, and the possibility of a reality far stranger than we allow ourselves to believe.

FaithFox · Answer

The description gains power from its first-person, present-tense immediacy in key sections. You're not reading a report; you're in the room with Strieber, feeling the paralysis, seeing the small figures approach. The prose becomes frantic, sensory, and disjointed. The beings are described in flashes: a glimpse of a hand, the curve of a head against the light, the overwhelming proximity of those eyes. This technique puts you in the victim's head, making their fear your fear. Their appearance isn't delivered as a fact, but as a traumatic sensory overload. This is why the 'Gray' from this book feels more real and terrifying than the same image in a hundred movies. It's tied to a visceral, literary experience of helplessness and violation, not just a visual design.

FreshCove · Answer

Has anyone else noticed how the 'Communion' being looks nothing like earlier UFO 'contactee' descriptions like the Venusians or whatever? It's such a stark, almost hostile shift from the hopeful, human-like space brothers to these creepy, infant-like intruders. Says a lot about changing cultural anxieties, from Cold War optimism to 80s paranoia about control and violation.

AidenLong · Answer

You have to separate the pop culture 'Gray' from Strieber's actual text. The book's description is more nuanced and terrifying. The beings have a certain grim efficiency about them. They're described as having a purpose, but that purpose is utterly opaque to the human subject. There's a chilling matter-of-factness to their actions. Physically, he notes things like a subtle nasal aperture, a barely-there mouth, and skin that looks both taut and fragile. Their eyes are repeatedly emphasized as windows into a vast, impersonal intelligence. The book also explores the idea of a 'hybrid' program, suggesting the beings are involved in a long-term genetic project. This adds a layer of existential horror—we're not just being visited; we're being farmed or altered. The description builds a picture of a chilling, long-term engagement with humanity that is completely outside our control.

QuinnWard · Answer

I have a softer take, controversial as it may be. Strieber's later work suggests he came to see them as more complex. In 'Communion,' the description is filtered through raw terror, but there are glimmers of something else—a cryptic compassion, or at least a lack of malice. Their eyes, while frightening, are also described as deeply knowing and sometimes even sad. The 'communion' of the title implies a two-way exchange, however traumatic. Perhaps they appear so cold and clinical because our fear paints them that way. Maybe their true nature is incomprehensible, and our minds fill in the blanks with the most terrifying imagery we can manage. The book's description, then, might be as much about human psychology as about the visitors themselves. They are a mirror reflecting our deepest fears of the unknown and our small place in the cosmos.

How Does 'Communion: A True Story' Describe Extraterrestrial Beings?

10 Answers

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